you set my soul on fire
by Regal-Song
Summary: Regina follows the scribbled writings of a request to meet her by the oak tree at the edge of the dark forest, after sundown. Post 3x19 pre 3x20.


A lot of people theorised that whilst Regina and Robin were sniping at each other over the course of the forgotten year, they were secretly having a torrid affair. I like this idea, and thus have written a small account of one rendezvous.

* * *

Regina huffed, awkwardly shuffling her feet over an exposed tree-root as she fidgeted with her skirts. She grumbled at the ridiculousness of what she was doing, huffed at the indignity, but couldn't bring herself to move away from the rotted, weeping oak at the edge of her forest. The moon was glowing between the tips of her castle spires, making the sharp silver edges glisten with renewed glory.

She'd forgotten how she could both hate and love that castle, in equal measure.

Rolling her eyes at her continued wait, Regina shuffled her heavy skirts around her feet, impatiently twisting and shuffling, her movements agitated and to her detriment, unnecessarily harsh; she tripped on the rich fabric, grasping for purchase at the bark of the tree only for her hand to land against a bed of damp moss.

Her face immediately contorted; pulling her hand away Regina gasped at the mud and moss pressed between her fingers and the dirt that had crept under her nails.

"That's it," She barked to the silent evening and the dark forest behind her. "I'm sick of waiting out here in this filth."

Hitching her skirts with one hand, holding her soiled palm out and away from her burgundy gown, Regina stomped over the tree-roots, ducked under a low hanging branch and made her way back towards the path.

"My lady, you've given up? And so easily."

The voice stopped her and Regina's blood began to boil as she heard the smirk laced in it's cadence. She'd already been simmering, getting progressively hotter with every second she'd waited, trying to ignore the bugs and mud and crawling animals that had found her curious.

Slowly and deliberately, she turned on her heel to see him standing there, feet perched upon the very offending root of which she'd tripped, not minutes earlier. He seemed to have no qualm with it, which only made her angrier.

"I have been waiting," She grumbled, teeth exposed and lip pulled back in a snarl. "I have waited, long enough."

"My lady, I thought you more obstinate than that." If it was possible to be both insufferable and alluring at once, the infamous Robin of Locksley had managed it, in a bushel. Regina inwardly groaned, attempting to hide the flush across her chest with a measured step back as he moved forward, hopping off the tree-root with a grin.

"Do not attempt to bait me, thief." She narrowed her eyes and she could see the corners of his crinkle in silent laughter.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Majesty."

She eyed him, curious. Her fingers that were still caked in mud - which she refused to wipe on her dress - flexed at her side. His eyes fell to the movement and she noticed, as her eyes fell to his lips, that the corner had pulled up in a small smile.

They were silent for a time, Regina fuming and Robin smirking, standing just in the shadows of the dark forest that sat to the south of Regina's castle. The night had a chill and the air smelled fresh with a hint of pine cones and moss, a smell she'd associated with Robin the moment she'd met him - for better or worse, she was yet to decide.

"Why did you ask me to come?" She questioned, pulling the folded note he'd slipped under the door to her chambers, from her embroidered décolletage. Robin's eyes bugged imperceptibly at where she'd chosen to keep the letter but didn't linger on the implications.

"Why are you here?"

"Meet me by the oak tree at sun down." She quirked her lips, slowly unfolding the scribbled missive, etched on thick parchment, even though she'd already memorised it's message. "What made you think I would?"

"You wanted to." He edged even closer, stepping into Regina's space and with a sapling behind her and it's twiggy branches stretched out to her sides as if at any moment it would pull her backwards into it's arms, she had nowhere to flee.

This man made her blood boil. The closer he moved the more her skin felt like it was on fire; she wanted to both set him alight with her magic and rip his clothes from his body with her bare hands but she couldn't decide on which she wanted more than the other. Her opinion changed with every utterance from his lips.

"Do not presume to know me, vagabond."

Robin moved closer again, reaching out for her hand and gently taking it into his own. Regina was about to yank it away when she noticed the handkerchief he'd raised to carefully wipe the dirt and moss from her fingers. Her eyes locked on his and her skin shivered with goosebumps as his gentle, calloused hands cleaned away the muck, lingering on each digit.

"I do not," He said gently, edging so close she could feel his breath on her lips and their hands were practically crushed between them. "But I would very much like to."

Regina's eyes widened, her mouth fell slack in shock and she could feel her heart rate quicken. She studied him intently, feeling how her chest heaved, pressing against his with every shuddered breath.

"Why?" She gasped and his hold on her hand tightened as he tilted his head with a look of realisation.

"You really don't know, do you?"

Her ability to shield herself from appearing weak or broken failed her in that moment; as her shoulders hitched in a small shrug, unable to voice a response to his question, she felt it's truth right down to her bones. She had no idea why anyone would want to know her better; no one ever had.

Out of the corner of her eye, Regina could see his free hand raise, he slipped it over her shoulder, letting his fingers tangle in the feathers at her collar before his fingers touched her jaw gently. His eyes begged permission and whilst she didn't protest, her breath shortened and her heart sped up. His deft fingers slipped to the back of her neck, gathering what was loose of her long hair across the back of his hand and flipping it around to rest over her shoulder.

They both turned their eyes down to watch his hand as he felt thick, soft strands between his fingers before lifting his hand so that he could touch the pad of his thumb to the apple of her cheek. "You are," She could hear a smile in his voice unlike the mischievous smirks she'd heard from him before and it forced her to look back into his eyes. "So beautiful."

Regina faltered. "But that…"

He cut her off. "And so sad."

"I am the Evil Queen." A single tear fell from her eye as she uttered the words, but Robin caught it with his thumb.

"No," He whispered. "You're not."

"How can you be so certain?" She breathed. "You said it yourself, you don't know me."

"No one truly evil, would show such regard for my son."

Regina pressed her eyes closed as she felt his other hand on her cheek, grasping her face with both hands as the warm breath against her lips changed to soft, wet lips and the course rubbing of his beard. Her mouth opened for him, her eyes pressing closed tighter as she fought tears. A few escaped, wetting her cheeks and laying forgotten as his fingers dove into her long hair.

Regina's hands, so far unoccupied, pressed to the small of his back and pulled him towards her. The fire that burned across her skin earlier, intensified at his touch, warming the night air and sparking electricity in her gut. They were like magnets, pulling one toward the other. Regina would pull back, gasping for air and he'd follow, boldly fighting the need to come up for breath.

Teeth scraped against teeth, the harsh and audacious lipstick of the Evil Queen smeared across her chin and upper lip as his stubble created a friction she feared would start a forest fire. He turned her toward the oak, wrapping one arm around her waist and guiding her way until her back pressed against the solid trunk.

She was no longer concerned about the moss.

She tried to hitch her leg around his waist, encumbered by her heavy, ostentatious gown, she groaned against his lips in frustration.

She dropped her hand between them to try and pull her skirts up. Robin realised what she was doing and helped her, bunching her elaborate skirt around her waist and bracing her against the tree with a knee between her thighs to hold her steady; she gasped at the rough fabric of his pants against her bare flesh.

"Corsets," He grumbled, agitated and Regina snorted, causing him to freeze with his hand pressed to the thick, boned fabric at her middle. Her chest was heaving, her eyes drooping with lust and her lips smeared with the deep, grape lipstick. "What was that sound for?"

She smirked. "You think you don't like corsets." She rolled her eyes, sucking her lower lip between her teeth as she pressed herself closer to him, tightening her thighs around his leg. "I haven't worn one for nearly thirty years, thief, trust me," She ground her hips into his further, making him groan. "My relationship with this corset is far more sensitive."

Robin's hand went for the strings at the back of her dress but she stopped him with a tight grip on his wrist. "Unless you intend to re-tie it," She tilted her head, eyebrows raised and lips quirked as he mulled over the choices.

"Even though it is worth it, it's a chilly night, my lady," He smirked, leaning forward to kiss her lips chastely with a growing grin. "I would prefer your comfort over satisfying my own lechery."

"Again, you prove your honour, sir." She was laughing at him and they both knew it but they didn't dwell, instead, Robin dropped his lips to her neck, kissing a line from her jaw down to the ample swell of her breasts as they heaved with every breath she took.

His fingers, hidden below the bulk of her bunched up skirts, played at her hips. Rough callouses from years at the bow, the sword and the forest, brushed against warm, supple, soft flesh. Robin arched back suddenly, his large hand gripping her thigh as he gasped.

"What is it?" Regina's eyes widened, looking over his shoulder, fearing he'd heard the noise of someone approaching. She was about to shove him off for fear of being caught, when his expression changed, somewhat.

"You don't wear undergarments?"

It took Regina a moment to realise what he meant when she finally remembered the ridiculous layers upon layers of undergarments ladies in the enchanted forest had been prone to wear. For an outside observer, Regina's wardrobe didn't seem to have changed in her thirty-year absence from the throne, but one man with his hand beneath her skirt, had discovered her vice.

Regina could feel her blush all the way down her neck.

"No," She choked out. "I do, it's just…" He tilted his head, genuinely perplexed. She could feel his thumb continue ministrations against her thigh, brushing against the delicate lace edging of her panties. "It's complicated."

"Is it not indecent?"

Regina's eyes narrowed. "As indecent as your hand beneath the Queen's skirts in the dark of the forest? You could be executed for less."

Robin cleared his throat. "You're right, I'm sorry," He nodded and she felt his hand slip away but not emerge completely. "I will understand if decorum would have you leave me here, my lady."

Regina smirked, raising a single eyebrow as she reached up and pulled at the lapels of his overcoat. "I would not have you stop, thief." She practically growled. He buried his face in her hair as the rest tumbled free of her elaborate up-do, kissing at the nape of her neck, dragging teeth and lips over her heated skin as his deft fingers braved the unknown.

Regina couldn't bring herself to completely discard the wonders of the modern world. Since returning to the Enchanted Forest, she'd not whisper to a soul the amount of times she'd conjured herself a cappuccino in the privacy of her chambers, how she'd used a little magic to make life a little easier or how she'd stood before her wardrobe - one of the rare places she'd garnered solace as the Queen - and replaced every scrap of underwear with Victoria's Secret Summer line with a flick of her wrist.

Robin was a quick study, she'd give him that; while his lips played at the corner of her mouth, trailing across to bruise her lips with a kiss, his fingertips found the hem of her Chantilly lace panties, tugging them down over her thighs. The pair let them drop to the forest floor and she paid no mind to how the expensive fabric could be trampled as he pressed her further into the tree, finding her warm centre with strong, agile fingers.

She gasped, pulling her lips from his as his fingers ran a circle around her core, teasing her, making her buck into his hand and starting that fire she'd been fearing. "Don't," She breathed, her face falling against his shoulder and her small hands gripping his arms as his finger entered her, just slightly and pulled out again. "You wretch of a man."

"Vagabond, remember?" He grinned and laughed when he felt her hands tighten on his arms in an inexpressible protest.

"You will not survive the night if you continue to bait me."

"Apologies, my lady," He smirked, looking down into her lust-filled eyes with a wanton look of his own. They stood like that for a moment, the air between them crackling with want as their breath mingled together in small clouds. Her cheeks were flushed red and her lips swollen and smeared deep purple. His eyes were wide and still begging permission even as his fingers danced at her centre, making her arch into him. The look in their eyes matched as did the heat in their hands. There was want and there was spite and there was need, but not the hate that she'd imagined. He wasn't out there in the woods to fuck the queen, he was there because he'd slipped a note beneath her door for _Regina_. He wanted her and even as she fiddled at the ties of his pants, gasping for breath as he hitched her up, she still didn't quite understand why.

It was then that she saw it.

Robin held one thigh in his hand, keeping her balanced as she stood on a tree-root to gain some height. His other hand reached for the back of her neck, burrowed in her hair against the bark of the tree and the sleeve of his canvas shirt had fallen down his wrist. There, just inches from her lips, was the lion tattoo.

She froze. She'd already pulled him free of his pants, holding his thrumming length in the palm of her stilled hand. Her heart rate was immeasurable, her breath quick and laboured and her mind almost completely blank.

Something inside of her screamed to stop.

The lion at his wrist, right there in front of her face, tortured her with possibilities and fears. If she did this, was she a slave to a prophecy or a master of her future? She'd chosen him, hadn't she? So what if fate had lead the way, had she not followed the letter and not the lion? Was it not his eyes and hands that had driven her to the woods that night? Was it not his warmth that was thawing her heart?

Robin could see in her eyes that something was troubling her and with trepidation, looking from her eyes to where they were set on his tattoo.

"My lady?"

Regina's eyes snapped to his face, wide and afraid and for a second, he hesitated. But it was those two words that changed the course of her heart. 'My lady' he had uttered, with his hand in her hair and his lips so close to her own 'My lady' was what he called her. _'__My lady__'_, his, she was his, decreed by fate and fairies and her own corruptible soul.

"My thief." She smirked and Robin tilted his head, confused but unafraid, laughing into her mouth as she pushed herself up to capture his lips. Her small hands caressed the length of him, gripped the base of him and guided him to her entrance. Their breath mixed together as her mouth opened in a gasp, feeling utterly complete as he filled her, as deep as he could go and stilled.

"Is this,"

"Shhh," She quieted him with a gentle bite at his bottom lip, twitching in his arms as she adjusted to him. He made to move but she stilled him with her nails digging into his forearms, wincing for a moment before she breathed out through a smile. "It's alright." She soothed him, kissing his jaw as she began their pace slowly and deliberately.

"Lead me, my lady." He whispered into the shell of her ear and Regina grinned, biting at his earlobe.

"I intend to."

The End.


End file.
